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November 17, 2005 No Tears for FPL...A Failure To Plan Lewis Hay III made $7,000,803 last year. That’s $134,630 per week or $26,926 per day. So who is Lewis Hay III? He’s the Chairman, President and CEO of FPL GROUP, INC., “one of the nation's outstanding electric companies” (visit fpl.com for the original quote). As a true blue Capitalist I have no problem with Mr. Hay making his 7 mil-----that is provided that he truly is earning his keep. But the question that sticks in my craw, in the wake of Wilma and after reading that FPL was just granted the largest rate hike in its history is this----Are FPL and Hay doing their jobs? Now I’m just a regular customer and Business owner who doesn’t profess to be an expert in providing electrical power or in managing public utility companies. But I can tell you this with a fair amount of certainty: |
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If I ran my business the way FPL runs its business, I would be out of business Case in point: throughout the 13 year period following Hurricane Andrew in 1992 to the 2005 summer of Katrina and Wilma, I have lived in the same house in North Miami Dade County. In those 13 years I have not noticed a single change in the way FPL conducts its business. In my neighborhood, they are still using early 20th century, exposed, rotting wooden power poles that look like they would be vulnerable in a sun shower, let alone a hurricane. These outdated poles sport power (phone, cable??) lines that swing in the breeze and get tangled up in the branches of overgrown, non-native ficus trees, more than willing to take the whole mess down with them when the wind howls. Sure, the wires and poles serve the squirrel, bird and rodent communities very well as convenient bridges from habitat to habitat. But I don’t think that was an objective for FPL when they created the system. Now look at your own business circa 1992 and compare it to your present day operation of 2005. Are they the same? Has technology changed the way your product reaches your customers? Would your newer or younger employees recognize your 1992 business as the same as your current enterprise? Over the past years, do you remember FPL and CEO Hays asking customers or the Public Service Commission for money to bury power lines; or replace worn out, vulnerable wooden posts; or to upgrade substations? Is FPL, with Mr. $7 million at the helm, doing its job as a vital public service provider to our community? ….You decide. DEMS AND REPUBS: HELP US BECOME MORE HURRICANE PROOF Next time you are solicited by a local candidate for public office for a donation or vote, please ask them what they are doing to make our state more hurricane proof and energy efficient in terms of: mandatory alternative power for vital services such as hospitals, gas stations and supermarkets; upgrading substations; burying power lines; hybrid cars for public workers, etc. HAVING AN EFFECTIVE FINANCIAL PLANPart of the frustration with FPL and other service providers such as Comcast or Bell South, is our lack of control over how they provide services. We can’t help you with that, but we can help you gain control over your family’s current and future financial security. The growing national trend in financial planning is toward consolidation of investments and advisors. The benefits to investors being, obviously, convenience and more importantly, the ability to have a well coordinated, overall plan, with all the pieces working together.
Austin A. Frye, MBA, JD, CFP® If you know of someone who may enjoy reading this newsletter, click here Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial-- Member FINRA/SIPC
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